


Summerween: The Aftermath!

by josephina_x



Series: Dimension 46’\-A [21]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: (Kind Of...), (heck he does it even when he’s not trying to), (he’s BILL CIPHER), (sort of?), (was there ever any doubt?), (yes OF COURSE Bill knows how to shitpost), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Bill Cipher is Insane, Crossover, Gen, Illusion IS Reality, Mentions of self-harm, One Year Later, Post-Series, Post-Weirdmageddon, See You Next Summer, WARNING: potentially triggering content, WhatWouldTeslaDo, trigger warning, wwtd crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 10:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17723558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: -A Bill is thinking over the events of the past few days, and decides to check in on two of his ‘favorite’ transdimensional blogs, while he’s at it. ...Things go a bit differently than Bill expected them to.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Fic: Summerween: The Aftermath!  
> Fandom: Gravity Falls  
> Pairing: n/a  
> Rating: PG-13  
> Spoilers: through the end of the series, and some of the books (Journal #3); also, up through Dec 9, 2018 of WWTD  
> Summary: -A Bill is thinking over the events of the past few days, and decides to check in on two of his ‘favorite’ transdimensional blogs, while he’s at it. ...Things go a bit differently than Bill expected them to.  
> Disclaimer: Not mine, not for profit.  
> AN: Oof. This took forever to get out there. Sorry about that. (Sigh.) --Summerween itself will be written from not-Bill’s POV later, but if it goes the way I think it will, it’ll be long, and I don’t want to get “stuck” on it, as it were. (I may try to get around this issue with short vignettes or something. We’ll see.)
> 
> More crossover madness! (Yay for [Noia](https://fordanoia.tumblr.com) (the mun of WWTD) and Mizuuma for both enabling my madness!)
> 
> If you don’t read WWTD (also known as: [What Would Tesla Do](https://whatwouldteslado.tumblr.com)) yet, then you really really should! Mizuuma’s fic ([Illusion IS Reality](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13291395/)) is pretty cracktastic, as well :)
> 
> The Miz!Bill and -A Bill posting are actually happening at [thedappercornchip](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com) and [agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com) , respectively.
> 
> ...And I hope I really don’t have to say this, but here it is in case I do: -A Bill is (and has been) an unreliable narrator throughout this series. This take on Bill may not “lie outright” as much as canon!Bill (as in, straight-up falsehoods), but the little jerk leaves a -lot- of things out (lies by omission), and doesn’t notice other things (prioritizes completely different things in terms of what he pays attention to, yes, but also _literally does not understand some of the things he sees_ that then ends up flying completely under his radar, so to speak). He also doesn’t want to admit all sorts of other things to himself (‘for reasons’ most of the time, but still). --And this has been true in literally every -A ‘verse fic to-date. (And I don’t see this changing anytime soon! *lol*)
> 
> Please note that this fic starts on the morning of Day 39 (though the events of Day 37 and Day 38 are discussed in a retrospective given in Chapter 1 of this fic).
> 
> Also, please note that the beginning of this fic refers to a few things that I haven’t written and posted yet, that happened (/ will be written about and posted) in [Consequences](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16608206) (...and that you will be able to read about once I finally finish getting those chapters written up and posted...).
> 
>  
> 
> _NOTE: For a summary of the general timeline for the -A series, and an explanation of the events that occur between the fics (which are in some instances significant time lapses of several days), please see:[Chapter 3 of the Timeline for -A [...]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15485919/chapters/41815928) for context._

\---

Bill was upstairs, reclining his body across the window seat in his “new” attic room. His left shoulder was a mere half-foot away from the window panes, which were gently being assaulted by a summer storm's rain.

It made a soft, somewhat random counterpoint to the screaming he heard, that had been going on forever, ever since he’d thought that he’d killed Liam and his dimension had burned down.

In truth, the screaming was him. He was screaming. He’d never actually stopped.

He’d actually weaponized it at a basic level by this point -- a long long time ago, really. Made it useful, made it _fun_ almost. Now, it was something of a game -- how long can I go? How long can I keep this up? How long can I keep doing this, in _exactly_ this way? --And he did just that. He changed the pitch and tone of his screaming _constantly_ \-- up and up and up and down from up and up-again -- belted it out in screaming Shepard tones, so loud it became an audible hum ringing throughout his entire energy form and never left the back of his mind, as he sang his rage out forever-and-ever-and-ever…

Bill loved music.

When he was like this, he couldn’t really hear himself, though. Not really. The form of his energy, his being, his very _self_ , was something he could barely _feel_ , stuck as he was and anchored down.

Like this, he almost couldn’t hear, couldn’t _feel_ , the screaming. Almost.

Like this, the soft patter of rain almost drowned it out entirely. _Almost._

Bill loved the rain. It was so _INTERESTING_. ~~...and it even put out fires, all on its own -- but who cared at all about _that?_ HA!~~

The rain was there, six inches of air-filled space and less than a quarter-inch of glass away from him, and Bill had absolutely no urge to open that window and let that rain in.

He liked being warm, and the rain would make him and the window seat wet. The cushions wouldn’t dry well, and the water would pool on the rough boards of the wooden floor...

He could use magic on it to clean it up later… or he could just never open the window at all to begin with.

Maybe he’d feel the urge to do so later, but right now? He did _not._

Instead, he spent his time musing over the past few days. Summerween had come and gone when the last candle flame had been blown out last night, and things had changed, yet again.

When he’d [seen the stage that Miz had posted](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180441854812/tenofswords618-givemeinternet-this-is-a) two days ago, he’d been beside himself with glee. He literally had not known what to do with himself. It was weird and awe-some and he’d wanted one SO BADLY!

He’d even said so. Out loud. Not in a private loud mutter. He’d just meant it. (--He could say it out loud! It was fine!)

Stanley had wanted to know what he wanted, which… was... what he did? Now? For him?

So Bill had shown him.

It had gotten a double-raised-eyebrow look and an appreciative “Huh...” out of Stanley. He’d even set down his spatula to take the phone from him and get a really good look at it!

Bill had been bouncing in place. If gravity hadn’t been a thing, he’d have been bobbing in the air in excitement instead.

When Stanley had been done looking and appreciating, Shooting Star had wanted to see, too. So Bill had shown her, too.

Shooting Star had appreciated it _much_ more loudly than Stanley had.

And then Shooting Star had asked if they were going to steal it.

Bill had had to inform her that it was in another dimension, and no, they weren’t stealing it out of that other dimension.

(Bill had told her this as he’d been reblogging-to-share the original picture of the stage with ‘everyone’ by [reblogging it on his own blog](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/180967578556/tenofswords618-givemeinternet-this-is-a), of course. Because it deserved to be admired and seen and that was a way he could help with doing that, by putting it in more places, even if only his own little corner blog of that space.)

He’d still been admiring it, just appreciating the _weirdness_ of it, when Shooting Star had asked him if she could help him make one.

Bill hadn’t even gotten that far, yet. (He liked to think he would have soon enough, but… humans did things so _quickly_. They were so _fast_ at everything. Bill still wasn’t used to having to be _that fast_ at _everything_ yet.)

It had taken a bit of back-and-forth with her, Bill thoroughly excited at the idea of building and reigning over his very own gigantic stage in the middle of the lake, and Shooting Star… had derailed his plans for a bit when he’d realized that _she_ had been talking about making a small-scale version of it to set on top of a small table, instead. He’d had to explain and reiterate that those were _human_ -sized humans on that thing in that image, that it wasn’t _small_ , and…

Well. Bill had been slowly getting used to Stanley having good thoughts, better than the ones Bill had started with, and talking those thoughts out with Stanley... and then Bill had taken those thoughts and run with them. This time, it had been Shooting Star, and she’d had a different -- not better -- thought, but it had prompted new thoughts of his own, and he’d been able to work with that, what she’d wanted and what she’d had.

They’d both gotten what they’d wanted, because Bill was great at negotiating!

Shooting Star had gotten to make her small-scale version, with Bill, and hadn’t minded that Bill had insisted on a very specific and consistent scale factor throughout, or that she’d needed to hold off on the glitter.

Bill had gotten to make his large-scale version, by including a proper truss structure in said small-scale version, within and under the book and half-a-human-skeleton (that he’d ‘borrowed’ from Stanford from where it had been gathering dust in the bottom of a closet -- not like he was using it for anything! he probably didn’t even remember that it had been his, special-ordered because he’d wanted an actual skeleton and not the same boring sort of standardized plaster or plastic mess that anybody else had). He and Shooting Star had then taken pictures of the small-scale version of it indoors, and acted as though they were done with that…

...and conspired to sneak out, and sneak it out, in the dead of night, to grab a few of those ‘height-altering crystals’ to grow it at the shore of the lake, because _Summerween_ and _scaring people!_

Bill had even made it into a competition -- because competing and _winning_ just made everything MORE FUN! He’d [shared the picture and what they were doing with the idiot trio](https://whatwouldteslado.tumblr.com/post/180968008092/this-is-a-longpost-that-you-hate-and-ignore-and):

\---

_This is a longpost that you hate and ignore and never read and didn’t ask for and I don’t care, I’m sending it anyway, this is a stage. A stage! Those are human-sized humans on that book! I am showing this to everyone. _ **Everyone.**_ Everyone needs to see this!_

_I want one. I’m making one! With– you don’t need to know that. Doesn’t matter. (No glitter. No! Glitter comes later! Glitter would look like sheets of tin foil if we put them on right now! She can add glitter later.)_

_We’re going to make it in small-scale using a real human skeleton and carve the book out of soap and then put it in the lake at midnight and then use a “height-altering crystal” with a flashlight to make it big and scare everyone with it for Summerween! Because no-one will see it coming, and no-one will know where it goes! Just bubbles after!_

_And it’s going to be better than any stage you three make! We’re going to take pictures when we’re done! We will beat you at stage-making!_

\---

Bill had submitted that post right at the start of everything, right after he and Shooting Star had decided upon a course of action and just before they’d started gathering the supplies for it. And then they’d just gone right ahead and done it.

They’d snuck out at night, Shooting Star pretending to go downstairs to get some hot chocolate for herself because she couldn’t fall asleep and then sneaking out of the kitchen window while she was down there, and Bill? He’d learned his lesson well from the last time -- cutting out ALL noise around Stanley’s bed would mean he’d notice and not-fall-asleep, get up and go-searching-for-him instead.

So Bill had changed how he set up the spell. _This_ time, he set it up so that all noise would make it _through_ \-- except the noise of footsteps and creaking floorboards and rustling curtains and any moving thing made of wood or cloth just in case.

Bill had gone to bed, and Stanley had gone to bed with him. Bill had waited until the lights were off and Stanley was rolled over and not looking at him... and simply tossed back the covers, gotten up, gotten changed into the clothing and shoes he’d stuffed under his bed beforehand, shoved some extra dirty laundry under the covers to make a humanish-like lump and put them back again. And then he’d shoved his phone back into his pocket, slid the curtains aside, opened the first-floor window, and slipped right out.

It had been a new moon night. Opening the curtains hadn’t changed the light level in the room one bit. --He’d still closed the curtains and closed the window again after him, just in case.

He didn’t worry about locking the window behind him. Stanley didn’t lock it; he always kept it closed but unlocked. Bill would be able to sneak right back in later, whenever he wanted, and Stanley would never know the difference by looking at the window.

Stanley would never know.

Bill had met up with Shooting Star by the kitchen window. She’d handed over-and-out the stage, and then they’d trekked the short walk over to the old outhouse. She’d changed out of her pajamas into proper clothing -- which she’d left in the outhouse earlier -- and Bill had picked up the rod and lantern he’d squirreled away in there himself, along with a few other supplies.

Shooting Star had taken up the stage in miniature and put it in a small wheelbarrow, then added a large can of glitter-glue she’d prepared earlier, the smaller container of black paint from earlier, and two house-painting paintbrushes.

They’d both pulled on ski masks -- a must for proper sneaking-about during nighttime excursions of the not-quite-criminal but let’s-still-not-get-caught variety, apparently -- and made their way out into the woods.

Bill had been on high-alert the whole time, not really liking the idea of what might be lurking around out there. He’d surreptitiously cast a ‘go-away-cryptids’ spell on the two of them before they’d left the clearing -- really, before they’d lost sight of the house. He’d also cast a ‘light globe’ spell that was effectively only as bright as a will-o’-the-wisp for them to see by, and stuck it to the end of the rod, while he carried the lantern himself. Shooting Star had handled the wheelbarrow.

Everything had gone swimmingly, without the swimming! They’d grabbed the crystal they’d needed without issue. They’d made their way to the lake without any pesky cryptids trying to eat them, either! Shooting Star had placed the stage in the water for him where he’d told her to -- so he didn’t have to get wet doing it himself -- and Bill had moved the ‘light globe’ spell to the inside of the lantern and used it on the stage.

He’d had to cast a ‘water-off’/‘dry-quickly’ spell on the stupid thing after, so that Shooting Star could paint it right away, but that was fine.

Bill had magicked his paintbrush floating upwards from afar to touch up the text with the black paint, while Shooting Star had ‘GRAPPLING HOOK!!!’ed herself to the top of the skull and gone to town with the glitter paint.

They’d posed for a picture at the water’s edge, as proof for the competition later, and then Bill and Shooting Star had walked back themselves and their remaining supplies and tools right back to the house. No problem!

They would’ve gotten away with it, too, if that Stanford (who he _wasn’t_ going to call Sixer again until the idiot stopped refusing to be a proper Sixer to him) hadn’t woken up from a nightmare, from where he’d been sleeping on the floor of Pine Tree and Shooting Star’s room. ...And apparently gotten worried when he’d seen Shooting Star hadn’t been in the room with them anymore. (Because she’d been quiet about it and hadn’t woken him up when she’d slipped out.) And had woken Pine Tree back up and asked him where she was. And had decided after hearing where she’d gone that he’d wanted a cup of hot cocoa, too. And then he’d gone downstairs to do just that.

And then seen that she wasn’t there.

So when Bill and Shooting Star had walked back into the house after dropping off all their supplies back at the outhouse that nobody used anymore--

(Shooting Star going outside wouldn’t worry anybody, and if Bill walking back into the bedroom he shared with Stanley did somehow wake him up, then Bill could just claim that he’d gone to the bathroom and oh, what, you really thought you’d wake up every time I woke up? HA! You were WRONG about THAT!!)

\--they’d been greeted by three completely awake, male, and very not-so-happy-with-either-of-them Pines, standing in the living room of Stanley’s house.

As Shooting Star had put it, they’d been “...busted…”

That idiot Stanford had been straight-up angry that Shooting Star had gone out into the woods with Bill that night, and apparently ‘doing so on her own’ had somehow made that worse?

Stanley, on the other hand, had been (as usual) very reasonable about everything that Bill had been doing. He’d asked Bill what he would have done if they’d been attacked by any monsters in the woods, and Bill had told Stanley that, if the warding spell he’d cast on himself and Shooting Star _hadn’t_ kept the cryptids off them somehow, he just would have blown the stupid things up, of course! And that had been the end of that.

(It was a no-brainer, really. Bill wasn’t about to get himself or his Zodiac killed _not_ attacking something back, just because a little explosion going off in the woods might have given away the fact that he and Shooting Star weren’t actually in the house at that time of night. That would have been stupid, and so what if they would have gotten caught being outside! Shooting Star had been the one far more invested in making it a ‘surprise’, for the rest of her family, than he had.)

Because _of course_ Stanley wasn’t going to penalize Bill for going out into the woods alone at night with Shooting Star. Bill hadn’t done anything that violated the agreement. They were both safe -- Bill had made sure of that -- and Bill hadn’t done anything to her other than let her get involved in something fun with him. He’d escorted her out and back again, letting her come with him to put the final touches on the stage that she’d wanted to add to it after embiggening it, and everything was fine. Stanford was being an idiot.

So Bill had just rolled his eyes at all of the yelling and carrying on from Stanford and Pine Tree and headed for bed. He was flat-out tired from all the energy he’d had to use that day and night keeping up with Shooting Star, and hadn’t felt he’d needed to stick around for any of that noise.

Stanford had been more than just an idiot when he’d stomped after him down the hallway to Stanley’s room and then kicked the door in.

...which had led to Bill gaining a bedroom all and solely of his own.

That had been surprising. --The gaining of a new bedroom to himself, that is, not the kicking-in-of-the-door. Bill had been expecting that to happen sooner or later, and much sooner than that, really. So he hadn’t been surprised. -- _Startled_ , yes, but not surprised. Really, Bill had expected Stanley to continue to try to stop that Stanford from slamming his way into that bedroom for at least a little longer, or to have struggled with him after, put up more of a fuss about it...

Stanley hadn’t. He’d shown up in the doorway and said something entirely different, instead.

...Apparently, successfully tricking Stanley and sneaking out on him at night without waking him up out of a sound sleep meant Bill was ‘old enough’ to not have to share a bedroom with him. Because teenagers who were getting old enough to sneak out without getting caught should get their own bedrooms where it was _easier_ to sneak out at night without getting caught? --It really made no sense to Bill, and had left him feeling a little… odd… about the whole thing.

The part that _had_ made sense was the part about being able to do whatever he wanted to his own bedroom without ‘worrying’ about anybody else -- which Stanley hadn’t really been willing to put up with in a bedroom he had to sleep in. So, that was a plus!!

Stanley had made him take down the new sound barrier around his bed first, then had moved all of Bill’s things up to the attic at the top of the stairs that night.

It had left Bill completely exhausted -- almost worse-than. He’d been asleep on his feet almost, as he’d finished scratching the rudimentary start of rune-magic into the walls and floor with his pocket knife. (It fed off of the ‘pressure differential’ created by the ‘mystical barrier’ surrounding the house acting against the outer edge of runes, and fed the resulting energy bleed into spells on the interior -- creating a sort of interior bubble within the barrier where magic and magical effects could still-and-again work.)

He’d wanted an 'against the physical’ barrier that would keep out everything and anyone except himself and Stanley Pines. There wasn’t even a door to kick in up here; it was just straight up the next flight of steps from the end of the hallway where Pine Tree and Shooting Star’s bedroom was.

Bill had effectively been given claim-to and ownership-of the closest thing the house had to a ‘penthouse suite’ by Stanley, now. But Bill didn’t know how to feel about that -- because, on the one hand, it was the closest thing the place had to a penthouse suite! And Stanford had complained about it a lot! HA!

On the other hand… it had ~~(still)~~ almost felt like he’d been _kicked out_ of Stanley’s room.

...except Stanley had straightforwardly told Bill that he was still allowed to come back into his (read: Stanley’s) bedroom whenever he wanted. _Full permission_ , never to be rescinded. Stanley had been clear about that. They hadn’t moved any of Stanley’s furniture upstairs for him, or the bed Bill had been using -- which was ‘Bill’s bed’ -- they’d only moved just Bill’s day-to-day _things_. ...So he hadn’t been kicked out? He just had his own “new” attic room to himself that he could set up however he wanted, do anything he wanted to, and even sleep in and sneak out of whenever he wanted?

...So he could sleep in Stanley’s room again whenever he wanted, as long as he wasn’t planning on sneaking out of it? (...Was this supposed to be some sort of a test?)

Well, Bill had decided he wasn’t sleeping down there that night! (He’d snuck out, so... that wouldn’t work. Right? So he was going to sleep upstairs in the attic, instead.)

That night, Bill had had a choice between sleeping laid out on the floor (quickly swept of dust) or curled up on the lumpy old windowseat in the attic. He’d chosen the bare wooden slats of the floor.

That had been the day-and-night before Summerween.

Bill had fallen asleep thinking about how Stanley might finally be starting to get a real sense of how big a problem that Stanford was going to be, given the content of what that Stanford had been yelling at Shooting Star about.

Bill had figured that it would be days, a week at most, before Stanley had to make his choice: Bill, or that Stanford.

And Bill knew who Stanley was going to pick, when it came right down to that line: not him.

Because when it came down to which of them was more likely to kill the kids...

Stanley would pick Stanford, and break the mutual nonaggression agreement. Stanley would choose the kids, choose Stanford and not him. And then...

The next day -- yesterday, the day of Summerween -- Bill had gotten up late in the morning after sleeping in. He’d known full well that there was no way he was going to be participating in anything-Summerween _properly_ \-- not without whatever he did or didn’t do leading that Stanford to feeling mentally attacked by him, which would violate the agreement, because of _Pine Tree_ , ugh -- and he really hadn’t felt like having to handle being around any of them longer than he could help it, because of that.

He’d gotten himself some breakfast toast, waved it at Stanley as he’d walked into the living room with it, and taken up residence in the chair to eat it.

Bill had been expecting to spend all day just like that, really -- lounging in the living room, with a glaring Stanford keeping watch over him in the same room as him, and Melody in turn keeping a watching ‘babysitting’ eye on Stanford herself, to complete the idiocy.

Instead, Stanley had done something completely insane: he’d challenged Bill to a scaring competition of the people in town, _and suspended the mutual nonaggression agreement for the duration of Summerween_.

Stanford had looked sick.

Bill had nearly laughed himself sick.

...Then Bill had realized that Stanley had meant what he said.

Bill had stopped laughing.

It had taken him a few moments to realize what Stanley was likely trying to do, there. --And of course Bill was up for a good game! Why not? He’d play along, sure!

...He’d warned Stanley that what he was doing likely wouldn’t work, of course. That it wouldn’t change anything. That, sooner or later, he’d be backed into that corner. That, even if what he was trying to do worked, it’d only put things off by about a month at most. --Heck, the odds had been 50-50 that Stanford would lose his shit on the spot _right then!_

But Stanley had stood by it.

Stanford hadn’t shot anyone.

And, hey, Bill couldn’t really complain. He’d actually had a lot of fun!

The best part had been scaring Stanley. Win or lose for the night, Bill felt more than a little smug that his point had been made, and made well: Stanley was one of the people in town, and Bill could scare him. Stanley couldn’t scare him back. --If it came down to a game of _time_ , Bill would always eventually trump him. Bill couldn’t lose; Stanley would eventually. It was only a matter of time!

...Stanley had actually congratulated him on it. (Shooting Star, too; she’d helped.) It had made Bill feel a bit odd about the whole thing.

(Then, of course, there had been the big reveal that Shooting Star had decided earlier that day that she was a contender in their Summerween scaring competition, too, and outdone them both at it. Seriously, she had -- Bill couldn’t contest her logic. Neither of them had won. It had been _HILARIOUS!_ ...But it had also been funny, too.)

Looking back on it all, Bill realized that he had truly enjoyed himself.

...He also realized that Stanley might have gotten the wrong idea about something. The agreement had been on-hold, but Bill knew it had been a ‘test’ -- something of a show for Stanford.

Bill knew full-well that the agreement being off for the night didn’t negate Stanley having that one line he didn’t dare cross: not messing with his family. (Not unless he was prepared to deal with Stanley turning on him.)

Stanford likely thought the _agreement_ was the only thing keeping ‘the kids’ alive; the idiot was so fixated on the idea of ‘deals’ and similar bargains...

What Bill wasn’t entirely certain that Stanley understood was that, by the terms they’d agreed on for their scaring competition -- which had given him free reign to torment said townsfolk that Summerween night(!!) -- scaring anyone to death would have counted _against_ him by the rules they’d been temporarily playing against each other by.

At the time, Bill had had reason to play along with what Stanley had seemed to want; and it had been just one night, after all, nothing much in the grand scheme of things.

But that didn’t mean that under any other circumstances, Bill wouldn’t have killed any of those townspeople on a whim, out of sheer boredom, or for any other reason that struck his fancy. (Several of them, he’d truly been tempted to do just that to too, _really_. --They’d been SO RUDE to him!)

Bill had a feeling that he really ought to make that clear to Stanley later that morning at breakfast, just in case, just to make sure Stanley didn’t get any strange _ideas_ about the whole thing, and how it went down. The last thing Bill needed was to risk Stanley getting as preachy with him as Stanford did sometimes, if he did or didn't do something that Stanley didn't or did expect. Besides, Stanley already spent too much time as it was needling and pestering him to go into town with him for ‘grocery shopping’ and 'other errands’ -- which Bill DID NOT WANT to do! (And Bill wasn’t going to, if he continued to have any say in the matter -- which he did!)

In the meantime, it was still a bit early, and Bill didn’t feel like going downstairs just yet. He had an hour -- or two, depending on how much he wanted to push things -- to spend wisely before having to go eat breakfast (before Stan came upstairs, found him, and pestered him to do it until Bill did it).

Bill sighed and reached for his phone. He hadn't checked Miz’s blog lately, had he? He should probably do that. --It was usually pretty fun, writing to her! She got him! She _understood_.

He pulled it out, unlocked the screen, and flicked over to the appropriate program he had running.

He pulled up her blog, navigated down to the start of the oldest posts he hadn’t read yet (ah, there were a lot of them this time!), and he [read](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180502884186/askreformedbill-thedappercornchip-i-am):

\---

_In my dimension, irregulars were killed at an early age if they didn’t ‘measure up’. Sounds like a lot of things were different in your ‘2nd dimension’. No-one in The Rebellion asked ME to invent weapons. None of them wanted to fight, except… WELL. SHE was a VERY UNIQUE LINE._

_Don’t blame yourself, BLAME THE CIRCLE. And NO FIRE IS FRIENDLY._

_WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT WILL?_

_thedappercornchip  
I…really dont know. Part of me is afraid that if I tried anything to bring him back, it might cause something horrible to happen. I still miss him but I miss my sisters from when I was human too. With Ax being in charge of all the Souls that exist within my dimensional set, I would have to ask him. I dont know how your Axolotl handles this sort of thing but mine just recycles Souls in a reincarnation cycle. So, for all I know, Will’s already been reborn somewhere as something or someone else, with no memory of his previous life. Thinking about such a thing is distressing._

\---

Bill frowned.

That hadn’t been what he’d expected. Not at all.

He was quiet for a long time.

Eventually, he started typing, slowly.

\---

_I don’t know why you keep writing as if “my” Axolotl and “your” Axolotl are different. There's only one lizard. It may look like there are a lot of them--it, but there’s really only the one. Parts of a whole. One of it is higher than the rest of it, but… it's all connected. Interconnected. It isn't different. Isn't separate from itself. And “they” is all restricted by the same set of Rules. ...Aren’t they? Some of them, parts-of-it, don't have MORE rules to follow than the others… do they?__

\---

Bill had to stop, as he realized that…

\---

_There's a hierarchy. Hierarchy implies more rules the further down one goes… Additional, self-imposed rules? ...But there isn't complete separation. I Saw that, long ago. So how different could they-of-it be?__

\---

Bill was frowning even harder now.

He shook himself, then continued.

\---

_Souls are just an energy base with the Mind wiped and removed/disconnected from it. You don't need the same soul to get your Will back, just his Mind._

_Minds are usually attached to bodies more concretely than souls, unless you kick them out into the Mindscape properly, detached from the body and attached fully to the soul instead._

_Easiest way to get Will back is to rewind the entire dimension completely -- just like the Axolotl does when a demon violates the Demon Rules -- until Will is there and alive again. Then you can just pluck him right up out of there -- like the Axolotl WON'T -- and keep him safe. After making things safe for him.__

\---

...which was what Bill was planning on doing with Liam, once _he'd_ made everything safe.

\---

 _You seem to be isolated from_ demon _demons there, that that stupid lizard must have set up for some reason but would never tell anyone. So you probably wouldn't need to do much except keep your entire dimensional set isolated from all others forever to keep him safe.__

\---

Bill grimaced as he tried to think through the implications, and something occurred to him.

\---

_But that sort of rollback probably wouldn't work for you. You created the 3rd dimension out there, out of the remnants of your 2nd dimension, yes? To perform that kind of rollback, you'd have to completely rewind the 3rd dimension to get back the 2nd. And you don't have control of the 3rd dimension. ...So you're kind of screwed, there.__

\---

Bill sighed deeply. Because of course the Axolotl had completely screwed her over, too.

\---

_Of course YOU would find that distressing to think about. YOU seem to LIKE the stupid lizard, but it wiped the last remains of your brother off the face of existence when it wiped his soul-base clean of what tatters of his mind were left attached to it after death. Why WOULDN'T that cause severe internal dissonance in your mental energy?_

_I'll… try to think of something else that might work for you. I haven't thought much about that aspect of it once I figured out something that would work for me. I've only recently started trying to figure out a way to prevent a dimension from collapsing with magic and without needing my Eye. I'll let you know what I come up with!_

_I have no idea what to do about your sisters, though. Not enough information. Can you See them? Are they still alive?_

\---

Bill thought about encrypting it, then shrugged it off. Didn't really matter. There was nothing too dangerous in there.

He hit the button to [repost it](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/180990713926/askreformedbill-thedappercornchip-i-am).

\---

The next thing Bill read had him raising his [eyebrows](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180502974261/speaking-of-my-human-forms-the-one-i-named-miz).

\---

_WHAAAAT? People FORGIVE SS for what she does? NEWS TO ME! HAHA!_

_thedappercornchip  
No one’s mad at her for spiking Stitch Heart with a love potion. Or when she blinded Stan with a rainbow. You know…stuff._

\---

In response, Bill wrote:

\---

_Which dimensions have YOU been watching? In the dimension I'm currently in, Thompson was mad at Shooting Star for breaking up the group, in getting Tambry and Stitched Heart together, because he knew it was her that did it, and he wanted the group to stay together. He didn't know about the love potion, but he was still mad at her! Shooting Star told Pine Tree about it, but he didn't get mad at her because she realized that she'd screwed up and was obviously wanting to try and fix it! So Pine Tree just offered his sibling a potential fix instead of getting mad -- that she should try to break the spell -- and when she went for it, he helped her with it. No reason to get mad there! “The Love God” got angry with her when he caught her stealing more potions from him again. Pine Tree didn't get mad at her when she thought it might be worse to try and use the anti-love potion on Tambry and Stitched Heart because Pine Tree agreed with her. Thompson didn't forgive her, he just went ahead and fixed it himself._

_When Stanley was blinded with that rainbow, it was a group effort. Shooting Star wanted him to see a rainbow, Candy came up with the idea for the mechanism, Pine Tree and Grendo and Shooting Star were onboard with it, Pine Tree and Candy did the actual pointing of the redirecting mirror, Question Mark let them use his truck for it, and Stanley opened the window himself. Stanley was angry with all of them, including Shooting Star. She had to apologize A LOT for that one, HAHA! And Stanley's never forgiven that rainbow for burning his eyes like that. He hates color more than ever, STILL!__

\---

Bill frowned slightly at that one, then added:

\---

_HM. Going to have to fix that._

\---

He hit [‘reblog’](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/180992050171/speaking-of-my-human-forms-the-one-i-named-miz).

The next post, he easily decoded mentally, as usual, using their usual [keyphrase](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180504387191/agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter):

\---

_Our histories feel very different based on some of the other stuff you've responded to my other posts with. And yeah, Amorphous Shape is kinda sorta my kid. It's…complicated. I ejected one of my Pieces into my world's Nightmare Realm, which sounds like it’s not the same as YOUR NR. Your old Flatland became your NR, my Flatland became the 3rd Dimension. Anyway, I ejected a piece into my NR amd normally the piece/egg dies if it's not incubated inside a slot but for whatever reason, this piece survived. It cracked and grew into a weird segmented shape and I found him crawling around one day. So…yeah? Ammy’s my son. It’s really weird. Other differences, my NR is unstable but it doesn’t collapse, it empties of all energy, all living creatures and plants within it die. The non-living things become brittle and crumble into dust. Then it becomes a silent, empty void. So I can create life there, rather, I tear my exoskeleton apart whenever I start burning over with more energy than I can handle and bleed out into the NR which creates plenty of mindless creatures that I call Nightmares. It’s pretty cool, all things considered. I've been keeping the energy from leaking out as quickly by putting Madness Bubbles everywhere. Well, I call them that because I heard another Bill call them that. Either way, they work well and I can build cool stuff in my NR. I mainly use it for testing out my powers in a place where I won't accidentally hurt anyone. If I wanted to hurt people, I want to do it on purpose. Killing people by accident is the WORST. I don't mind having an adopted child. I actually like children, well, not stupid children, but Quackers is a smart girl. There was an accident with my powers again recently, which was upsetting since I kinda…erased her Mind. I rebuilt it as best as I could but it was…kinda…bad. Pfth~internet etiquette, or ANY etiquette, is kinda bullshit since it changes constantly. Plus, you're gonna offend someone no matter what. You'll never know what can upset someone until it happens. I'm doing well. Pyronica’s kids are nearly adults now. Kryptos is taking a few more decades of schooling, he wants to learn EVERYTHING amd it’s rather adorable. Hectorgon is still trolling the Federation by hacking into their computer systems and making things as difficult for them as he can. Teeth is getting pretty popular in the theater scene, got to be main character of the next Play he's in. Everyone else is much the same as always. My sweet widdle Xanthar is getting better at non-verbal communication. Things have been pretty quiet aside from the general ups and downs of me still struggling with my powers. Ooh, just thought of something fun! Have the kids explain ‘internet memes’ to you._

\---

And Bill stared off into the distance at nothing.

And stared.

And stared.

And…

\---

_That… is NOT how reproduction occurred in my home dimension. AT ALL.__

\---

Not least of which because those 'slots’ and 'holes’ didn't sound anything _close_ to symmetric -- _certainly_ not convex.

Bill had not reached the point at which he would have been _required_ to marry and produce offspring, before everything had gone wrong and his dimension had burned down, but… all of _that_ lunacy he’d just read didn't sound anything _like_ the same as figuring out the equations to… -- _not that Bill had ever done that yet!_ And he didn't really see any reason to! Why should he?!

\--And reproduction and “sex” were different for beings of pure energy, anyway! _Very_ different. Even if he somehow found someone he'd trust enough to not just try and straight-up absorb his energy into their own while his guard was down -- _and he hadn't_ \-- or otherwise not try to overwhelm him or be overwhelmed by him in return (easy to have happen if energy levels were not synchronised to match, or if one ‘partner’ was actively _trying_ to destabilize the other’s energy), he'd _never_ known anyone who he'd felt the slightest bit inclined to _do_ something like that with.

The next part, though… _that_ nearly broke his mind.

Actually, that was a lie -- pretty much every part of that broke his mind... just different-sized pieces of it, for different reasons, by different things!

\---

_Amorphous Shape is not my kid. Not the one I know here.__

\---

His Amorphous Shape was a demon. All of his Henchmaniacs were.

As for what she’d said about the remnants of her old dimension...

\---

_Kid, I don’t think you realize what you just told me. So let me repeat it back to you in a different way!_

_When you leave your ‘NR’, everything in that dimension dies and it empties of all energy and matter completely and becomes an empty void with nothing inside it._

_\--That is the very DEFINITION of a collapsed dimension._

_...and it STAYS THAT WAY until YOU come back and are INSIDE it, with more energy than you know what to do with._

_You have to PUSH YOURSELF BACK into it, which means that in order to fit inside it, you had to expand it outwards enough to fit you first BEFORE you entered back into it, as part of THE PROCESS OF entering back into it._

_\--By pushing yourself back into it, you are EXPENDING ENERGY and EXPANDING IT BACK OUT AGAIN._

_When you’re inside it, until you ADD MORE THINGS TO IT, there is no sense of scale. So even if you LOOK AT IT from the outside of it, you won’t be able to tell how ‘LARGE’ it is UNLESS you are WATCHING IT while things are still inside it, before it’s emptied out COMPLETELY._

_(THAT’S INTERESTING. That’s not how MY Nightmares are made or ‘Madness Bubbles’ work. I’ve ‘created life’ in mine though -- my Eye-bats are GREAT! HAHA!)__

\---

Bill actually hesitated a moment before he wrote what he was thinking next:

\---

_If you’re needing to BLEED OUT energy all the time, then you’ve got the OPPOSITE of the PROBLEM I had!_

_...But I gotta ask, kid. Stanley made it pretty clear awhile ago that damaging myself physically was a no-go. And when I asked him WHY, he said a bunch of things that didn’t make too much sense. BUT. One of the things was a thing about what ‘self-harm’ means to humans. And you started out human. SO. Are you doing this ‘TEARING YOURSELF APART AND BLEEDING’ thing as a HUMAN-thing? Or as a DEMON-thing?_

_If you need to bleed off energy AT ALL, then you’re doing it wrong, kid. SELF-REGULATION is a thing! And there are LOTS of other ways to get rid of excess energy. You really DON’T KNOW how?__

\---

It took him another few moments before he was able to tackle the next big thing:

\---

_TESTING THINGS OUT is good! Good job doing where nobody can SEE you doing it, kid!_

_HAHA, killing people by accident IS annoying! Having to ROLL BACK TIME to get them back when you’re not DONE WITH THEM yet is SO MUCH WORK. --And then they SCREAM at you if you do it ‘REALLY WRONG’ and they remember what it all felt like! CLASSIC!_

_...Yeesh, as long as you don’t find it annoying to have them, I guess. BUT. You DO realize that MIND-DEATH means you straight up KILLED her, RIGHT? You can’t REBUILD that shit. That’s what TIME-ROLLBACKS are for._

_That’s what SELF-CONTROL is for. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED, KID?__

\---

She clearly wasn’t regulating her energy, Bill figured. He hadn’t made a mistake like THAT since _very_ early on, in his first several BILLION years or so. --Not without expecting it to be an issue, anyway. He always had a couple issues the first couple of times he tried to possess a new species, but he hadn’t actually _melted_ anyone’s body or **overwritten** anyone’s mind ‘by accident’ in a _long long time_. --Not since he’d figured out how to ‘hibernate’ bodies properly while he was in them, and he _always_ checked out the biology beforehand when he could.

And when he had to figure it out _hands on_ , well… he always made sure to pick a few ‘ _starters_ ’ that NOBODY and NO-ONE would care would die when he was done with them -- least of all _them_. Bill made Deals with them understanding _exactly_ what he was gonna do to them going into it!

This ‘accident’ of Miz’s didn't sound like _that_ , though.

\---

_’Etiquette’ is bullshit? HA! I KNEW IT! THAT’S why it all keeps CHANGING and NONE OF IT MAKES ANY SENSE! --I’m gonna IGNORE IT and DO MY OWN THING! HAHAHA!_

_Only thing to ‘worry’ about is whether what you’re getting is RUDENESS, or if you’re getting proper FEAR and RESPECT instead!__

\---

Bill hummed to himself as he thought about what to say about the ‘family-friends’ thing Miz had written.

\---

_Good to READ that your ‘FRIENDS’ are keeping themselves BUSY -- always a PLUS not to have to spend ALL YOUR TIME coming up with ways to ENTERTAIN them! HA!_

_Can’t help you with your powers much when you’re over THERE! Some things just shouldn’t be talked about anywhere but IN PERSON. ‘Code’ isn’t enough.__

\---

Bill would be happy to see her again and explain. He did wonder at her lack of control at times; her control was ‘fine’ for her age and with a lack of demons pushing her, he supposed, but...

\---

_Sometimes, too little information can be DANGEROUS, Easier and safer when you can ASK QUESTIONS RIGHT AWAY.__

\---

Bill knew that there was a lack of time synchronization between his dimension and hers.

\---

_Eh. Shooting Star tried to SHOW ME a few ‘internet memes’ already. THEY MADE NO SENSE! HAHA!_

\---

Bill hummed to himself a bit, Was there anything else he wanted to say there? ...He couldn’t think of anything.

So he encoded it, referenced the original reblog as a link, and [sent it](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182691875811/thedappercornchip).

Bill read on, and blinked at the next [reply](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180504414831/bill-default-size-of-5-feet-long-on-each-side).

\---

_Music in your Flatlands sounds interesting. I wish we had something even remotely like that._

\---

To this, he really had nothing to write beyond what he had written before.

Bill moved on.

When he read about Miz’s posts [not being time synched](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180513876196/pretty-sure-my-posts-are-not-time-synched-like) and how [relative lifespans would have become an issue](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180537509076/im-glad-too-since-i-doubt-humanity-would-survive) otherwise… Bill had to take a deep breath or two.

On Miz [wanting her Earth to look like something in particular](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180548668762/been-looking-up-images-of-what-earth-will), Bill wrote:

\---

_Once you’re there, you can make it look however you want! HA!_

\---

...and hit [‘reblog’](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182691932036/been-looking-up-images-of-what-earth-will).

Bill blinked at the comment on [wanting to eat other beings](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180582793948/is-it-bad-that-im-still-curious-about-what-a). He [responded with](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182691968801/is-it-bad-that-im-still-curious-about-what-a):

\---

_Don’t know why you’d WANT TO kid, have you SEEN where most beings have been? Or WHAT THEY EAT? Most beings need A LOT of DISTILLING and CLEAN-UP WORK before they’re edible enough to FEED ON. ...Delicious? Yeesh. Must be a human thing._

_But if you really WANT TO KNOW… I’m pretty sure most humans taste like CHICKEN! SO I’ve HEARD!_

_Ha, normal is overrated. And DOESN’T EXIST! Take it from me, stick to being WEIRD!_

\---

...because, really, he was what he ate, _literally_. It had been a problem before, when he’d been a being of pure energy, and had been trying to stay wholly himself. And now? Now, he couldn’t reconfigure or reprocess his own energy in the same way to make changes to his self: anything he ate NOW became part of his solid human-ish makeup, and _that_ was A LOT harder to change, let alone change easily! There was a reason he was trying to be picky about what he ate while he was stuck in his current stupid human-ish form.

Bill [posted his reply](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182691968801/is-it-bad-that-im-still-curious-about-what-a), then frowned at the [oddness involving answering some asks](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180597770966/did-you-take-a-screenshot-from-your-phone-as).

He read a few others that seemed a bit random, even for a him, then sighed over the talk of [time fluctuations](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180685659421/it-changes-if-im-using-the-age-of-the-twins-as-a) and [chapters](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180693625661/tilts-in-confusion-chapters-what-like-chapters). The latter was somewhat annoying though, since it meant that, possibly, the dimension they were both using to connect to each other had not just that TV show, but also some books or similar that were apparently in line with what was happening to each of them, if he was reading that right.

Bill didn’t bother to look into it, though. He could always do that later if he truly had the reason and initiative to do it, and he just didn’t at the moment. The concept wasn’t all that interesting to him, anyway -- he’d seen dimensions with writers who wrote things that perfectly matched the events underway in other dimensions before. They usually boiled down to either (a) pure chance, (b) some sort of harmonics in the personal ‘Dreamscape’ of the writer that aligned with that dimension and had a bleedover effect into their consciousness that was a bit like said writer having a working Eye attuned to that other dimension. Either way, cause and effect was never entirely certain when it came to these things, it took forever-and-a-HALF to verify whether it was the one case or the other. And even in the latter case, no writer ever ‘filled in the blanks’ enough for what was written or produced to be complete enough to be truly _helpful_ , as far as what Bill had ever seen to-date. (And given that Bill was one trillion years old and counting, that was saying something...)

Bill sighed at some of the further reiterations of [restricted access](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180703212596/since-you-have-a-transdimensonal-tumblr-account) (something he didn’t have to worry about, at least), and more oddness. He winced at the [color bled](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180757962226/this-piece-of-eye-cancer-is-called) and scrolled along quickly.

He thought about getting into an argument over how _blue_ is the best color, _not_ [yellow](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180759589486/this-is-a-picture-of-a-cheese-ramlette-its-made), then decided the argument not worth his time and kept reading.

He nearly stopped short again at [Miz’s mention of getting to write her own prophecy](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180788658006/sometimes-i-worry-about-the-future-i-still), but forced himself to move on.

“If the stupid lizard is letting her do it, then…” Well. It had better let her do it, rather than trying to pigeonhole her at the last minute.

And then Bill read [two](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180823760028/im-still-upset-that-i-accidentally-destroyed) [things](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180856555680/ive-been-somewhat-stressed-lately-i-think-i-need) that he found to be greatly disturbing:

\---

_I’m still upset that I accidentally destroyed Quackers’s mind. I fixed it as beat as I could and no one is blaming me for the incident except myself. But she’s all grown up now so all my kids have moved out, except Ammy._

_And now I wonder if that’s a bad thing?_

-

_I’ve been somewhat stressed lately. I think I need to tear my bricks open and pour myself out again. It’s pretty horrifying to watch but I just feel so much better afterward_

\---

Bill hesitated a bit, thinking he must be misunderstanding what he’d read. Except… he couldn’t see any other way to read either of them. (...Was it a human thing?)

To the first, he [reblogged](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182696608566/im-still-upset-that-i-accidentally-destroyed) as his reply:

\---

_...You are wondering if ACCIDENTALLY DESTROYING someone’s MIND is a BAD THING?_

_Only way to FIX that PROPERLY is a TIME ROLLBACK or REWIND. IS THAT what you DID to FIX THINGS?_

\---

...and if he was reading her correctly, WELL. If she DIDN’T THINK _destroying a Mind_ was a bad thing, then she _WASN’T_ a him-that-was-also-him after all. (He _had_ to be reading her wrong.)

Minds were even harder to fix than death. There was really only one way to do that, and that was it. _Not caring_ about getting THAT right would be...

Bill frowned, then moved on to the other, which was another mention of… _’bleeding’_ , when feeling stressed. Only this time, it wasn’t just her exoskeleton she was talking about tearing apart to let out extra energy, it was her _bricks_ , and it was about _‘relief’_ from _’stress’_ and _pouring her Self out_ , and..

This sounded a LOT more like what Stanley had talked about as human ‘suicidal tendencies’. When he’d explained it, Bill had gotten… we’ll, let’s just say it was an ‘education’ on the subject. --Bill had Seen plenty of humans tear their own bodies apart before in all sorts of different ways, for all sorts of reasons of course: sacrifice, accident, an odd sort of insanity, seeking death as a release from a life too-caged-in by Rules. Plenty of them were laughable! (Some just made him ANGRY. --How DARE they try to ESCAPE HIM that way!) But plenty of the ones who’d run after death, chasing it for themselves, were so TWO-DIMENSIONAL in their thinking! --They could have solved their problems EASILY, with a LITTLE HELP from A FRIEND. And most of the time, it was just A STATE OF MIND, as far as Bill had been able to tell.

When he’d Seen some humans _not_ manage to kill themselves by bleeding out, Bill had just laughed derisively and thought they were doing it wrong. That if they’d been smarter, they would have just contacted him and made a Deal with him instead. (He could have made them useful!)

Stanley, though, had tried to explain. And while Bill still didn’t really _understand_ it (humans were so stupid sometimes!), he had at least realized that there was _ONE_ thing that he HADN’T really realized before: some of those humans hadn’t been trying to kill themselves in doing all that ‘cutting’ and ‘bleeding’ nonsense. Some of them, apparently, had _enjoyed_ the sensations… but not in the same way that Bill did when he was possessing someone.

(Bill had **FELT** all _jangly_ inside the puppets he was possessing, when he caused their bodies pain. Things felt different in his anchored body than they had when puppeting a body around, and his exoskeletons felt even more different, still. Stanley had been _very_... ‘concerned’ when Bill had first told him that he liked the sensation, but in the course of Stanley asking him _why_ he enjoyed it… this idea of ‘stress’ and ‘release’ had come up. For some reason, Stanley had calmed down when he’d finally understood that Bill didn’t particularly care _WHAT_ sensations he was feeling, as long as he was feeling SOMETHING. Because after being stuck in the Mindscape for so long, without a body… ANY sensations was better than the NOTHING he’d been able to feel while floating in the Mindscape. Pain was just… _stronger_ , really. It hadn’t felt as muted as anything else the body was exposed to, mainly due to the ‘deadening’ sort of ‘hibernation’ Bill had to do to any body he was puppeting with a Mind that he wanted to keep around, to not risk overwriting his puppets’ brains when he was possessing their bodies.)

If what he understood from Stanley was correct, some of these humans apparently ‘cut themselves’ because they ‘enjoyed’ the feeling of ‘stress release’... the feeling of _dying_ … and that if they did it enough, for long enough, they’d slowly inch their way towards death, either by accident or on purpose. That eventually, they usually sliced themselves open, WANTING TO DIE.

...And that was NOT something Bill liked to think might be A THING for a him-that-was-also-him. Seeking death was not… _useful_. The idea of seeking death himself, a himself _doing_ that, was… _disturbing_ to Bill.

Bill didn’t want Miz to die. ...Did she _want_ to die?

...Bill frowned. He was going to have to ask Stanley about this.

In the meantime, he wrote:

\---

_There are BETTER and EASIER ways to ‘FEEL BETTER’ than DESTROYING your own exoskeletons._

_WHAT ‘STRESS’ ARE YOU TRYING TO ‘REMOVE’?_

\---

...and [’reblogged’](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182697512736/ive-been-somewhat-stressed-lately-i-think-i-need). (And didn’t feel very comfortable with the thought that a him that was like him might be considering DYING before fixing everything. WHY would she WANT to do THAT?)

Bill shook his head and pulled in a breath. This was… more difficult than he’d been expecting, that morning, on that blog.

Bill managed to read past Stabby Roombas and T-Rex soldiers, cat pictures and ‘Scam Likely’s, and mentally relegated them all to the ever-growing pile of ‘strange human things’, and then saw [a response to one of his previous reblogs](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180992738541/askreformedbill-thedappercornchip-i-am):

\---

_I don’t see my sisters anywhere. Either my previous dimension is too far, or, more likely, I cannot access it. Even if I could, I dont know what I would do. I’m…not the same person I used to be. They wouldn’t even reconize me anymore. It would hurt more if I showed up and our interactions weren’t the same as I remembered…_

_I know Ax and all his Alternatives are connected, but even so, my Ax is the one that’s in charge of my dimensional set. And he’s…nice…even if he’s a damn idiot sometimes._

_I’m a little annoyed he sent all the souls into reincarnation, but he did that with ALL the souls of everyone I killed when the 2nd Dimension burned so…it’s not like he did it just to spite me. My Ax just deals with stuff in his own stupid way, but he doesn’t go out of his way to stop me from doing what I want or trap me in the Nightmare Realm so I cant help but give him a break._

_Ugh, rolling back time that far would destroy everything I’ve worked for in the 3rd dimension. Ive watched it grow and develop and I…love it…humanity is finally forming…I don’t know if I even have enough power to do that…and Ax would probably be unable to look the other way if I did something THAT disruptive. Time Baby would certainly get up in my case about it. Ugh. I don’t want to deal with that. His whining is the worse._

\---

He blinked at the fact that he’d gotten such a fast response, then shrugged it off as part of that time fluctuating nonsense. What had been minutes for him had likely been hundreds of thousands of years or more for her.

Then he actually read what she'd written and went still.

...Eventually, he replied:

\---

_I AM the same person that I was BEFORE. I have not changed. I WILL NEVER CHANGE._

_WHEN did you CHANGE? WHY?__

\---

It was… really the only way he had survived over his one-trillion-year lifespan. He had decided that he would ALWAYS remain himself. That he would never change, NO MATTER WHAT.

He had made himself smarter, _carefully_ , MULTIPLE TIMES over the hundreds of thousands of millenia that had passed. And he’d REFUSED to make the same MISTAKE that every OTHER idiot seemed to make when doing that -- he’d NEVER LOST SIGHT of his goal.

HE WAS GOING TO GET LIAM BACK.

Bill wanted his brother back. And that would NEVER CHANGE.

\---

_WHY would your SISTERS not RECOGNIZE YOU? Don’t you REMEMBER what you were like BEFORE? You could go BACK to that, if you REALLY WANTED to. COULDN’T YOU?_

\---

...Not that _Bill_ would ever do that. Going back to the way he had been, before…

As a mere triangle, he’d have no way to keep his brother safe. Or alive. Or everything else FIXED in case anyone else tried to BREAK IT ALL OVER AGAIN later. To try and ADD unnecessary and BROKEN RULES, for whatever reason. Because that was what IDIOTS DID ALL THE TIME.

(OF COURSE Liam would recognize him once he was finally able to safely bring him back. ...Right?)

\---

_No stupid lizard is NICE. It/They is/are all STUPID ‘damn idiot(s)’ ALL OF THE TIME._

_You DON’T have to ‘give it a break’. It DID STOP YOU from doing what you WANTED! If that stupid lizard had to expend EFFORT to send all those Souls to ‘reincarnation’, then it WAS ‘ _going out of its way_ ’ to do it, and stop you! NOT EXPENDING EFFORT would have been _not_ going out of its way. WHAT ELSE can you CALL that, separating you from your brother ON PURPOSE when it KNEW you WANTED HIM BACK, other than SPITING YOU?!__

\---

Bill gritted his teeth.

He continued to write.

\---

_I TOLD YOU, I’ll work on a way to MAKE IT WORK. But YOU have to DECIDE:_

_Do you care more about WANTING YOUR BROTHER BACK? Or do you care more about NOT having to handle your stupid lizard ‘refusing to look the other way’ (TO STOP YOU FROM GETTING WHAT YOU WANT, TO SPITE YOU) and NOT having that stupid TIme Baby ‘get on your case’?!_

_Because I KNOW what I WOULD choose!_

\---

Bill all but snarled as he smacked the [‘reblog](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698008241/askreformedbill-thedappercornchip-i-am)’ button.

He sat there fuming for awhile.

...Eventually, he calmed down. It was that STUPID LIZARD. The stupid frilly pink know-it-all had somehow _convinced_ her that it was ‘too much trouble’ to _get her brother back?!?!_

If he EVER got his hands on that stupid thing--!!!

It took Bill several minutes of deep breathing sitting where he was, without having to pace or shout or hit things, before he was not shaking anymore. ( _YES_ Stanley, he could do that now when he wanted to!)

Bill let out a huff of breath, and moved on with his reading.

The next post was [another reblog reply to him](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180992795586/speaking-of-my-human-forms-the-one-i-named-miz) about Shooting Star:

\---

_Eh, people get mad but they don’t stay mad at her forever._

\---

And Bill was confused, because… what did _that_ have to do with anything they’d been talking about?

So he simply [replied](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698099706/speaking-of-my-human-forms-the-one-i-named-miz) with:

\---

_YES. WHAT’S YOUR POINT?_

\---

Bill outright gasped at [the next thing](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181013593116/sorry-it-took-so-long-to-respond-i-suppose-i) that he read:

\---

U forced to have a prophecy?

(Sorry it took so long to respond)

I suppose I COULD just not have a prophecy, but then I would need to make a different plan for when I meet my Pines…

\---

Bill figuratively _jumped_ on that one.

\---

_YES. NO PROPHECY. DON’T HAVE A PROPHECY IF YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH NOT HAVING ONE. NOTHING BUT TROUBLE!_

\---

He thought that he didn’t have to really give any explanation for that one, at all. (--To Bill, a prophecy was effectively a set of Rules that one had to follow to _maybe_ get what they wanted, OR ELSE. And that ‘or else’ was _never getting what he wanted at all, EVER_.)

Bill continued to read through various posts on socks, food, anime, and other human randomness. He noted in passing that apparently [humanity was at a caveman leve](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181199241911/hey-bill-what-are-you-getting-dipper-for)l in her 3rd dimension now, and wondered why she hadn’t made a deal with one of them to let her in, yet.

He blinked at the [mention of relationships](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181259322421/bill-do-you-have-a-girlfriend), though:

\---

_foulchaosinfluencer asked:_

_Bill, do you have a girlfriend?_

_I have never dated in my lives. Ive never felt a need for it and Ive only ever had a romantic attraction to one person. And she said no when I asked her out. I’ve never really felt such a thing for anyone else so I just never bothered._

_Pyronica keeps trying to get me laid. Its very annoying._

\---

...and at that, Bill couldn’t help but ask:

\---

_WHO was the one person?__

\---

After a moment’s thought, Bill added:

\---

_WHO was the one person? Was it when you were human?_

\---

...and [sent it off](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698207531/bill-do-you-have-a-girlfriend). Because, really, after everything Miz had described earlier about the 2nd dimension she’d been reincarnated into, and how reproduction worked there, he highly doubted that she’d meant when she was a triangle. And yet… she was able to make bodies for herself and take any number of physical forms. So maybe it did need clarification.

Bill himself had never... ‘dated’... or had a ‘romantic interest’ in anyone when he was a triangle. And it hadn’t been safe when he was a being of pure energy -- and he’d been far too busy with one thing or another ever since his dimension had burned down, anyway.

Frankly, it hadn’t occurred to him. When he’d been a triangle, he’d known that he was _supposed to_ find a line, and ‘settle down’, and have little shapes and lines… _eventually_ , but…

Bill had never actually considered it. His parents had died, father-then-mother, he’d taken over the ‘family business’, and then… well, he’d been busy with _that_ , and the resistance. ...And being angry and trying to understand the things his brother had left behind, he supposed.

Not that Bill didn’t know how reproduction worked! Not at all! (...He just hadn’t, ah, worked through all of the equations for it. Yet. Because he had never had a reason to. --It wasn’t as if he wasn’t _CAPABLE_ of understanding it! He just…. hadn’t solved the equations himself, yet. And really, they were supposed to be solved with a line anyway, so…! It was fine. It wasn’t important, anyway!)

Bill shook himself, and moved on to the next posts.

After Bill read about Crimbo, and Miz’s [little problem](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181292279775/update-ax-refused-to-eat-it-said-that-it-wasnt), he added (for future reference and planning, of course!):

\---

_THIS is EXACTLY why I had a WORMHOLE UNDER MY HAT. Helps keep those MESSY MOMENTS a bit LESS MESSY when you need a QUICK PLACE to STASH something, if you CATCH my DRIFT! HA!_

\---

He [sent it off](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698447976/update-ax-refused-to-eat-it-said-that-it-wasnt), then got a puzzled frown at Miz’s [panic](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181300255446/hello-i-hope-you-have-a-fantastic-day) over [‘Blessings’](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181304640661/still-didnt-get-the-hang-of-blessings-doesnt) and [‘Curses’](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181374751476/maybe-you-can-bless-because-you-are-innerly-a-good) amid all the Crimbo nonsense:

\---

_Anonymous asked:_

_Hello! I hope you have a fantastic day ^,^_

_Thank you! I hope you have a wonderful day as well!_

_Erm…oh. Did that just turn into a Blessing? Uh…I have no idea what that’s going to do!_

-

_Anonymous asked:_

_Still didn't get the hang of blessings? Doesn't seem to difficult expect the fact that you seem to accidentally bless people..._

_But it shouldnt ve happening! In only supposed to be able to Curse people!_

-

_Anonymous asked:_

_Maybe you can bless because you are innerly a good person and good persons shouldn't curse people?_

_That can’t be true. I’m an asshole._

_I mean, I just sent every corrupted official at the Federation a dream of being drowned in cake batter and they woke up to their offices filled with bees._

\---

He thought a bit, then weighed in with his two cents of:

\---

_‘Blessings’ and 'curses’ and 'wishes' AREN'T ANY DIFFERENT from each other in HOW THEY WORK, or what you can DO with them. It's JUST a STATE OF MIND! ...at least, it is in what I'M used to SEEING._

_HOW are you SETTING UP your DEALS? You're not locked into the KARMIC CYCLE, ARE YOU? THAT could explain why you're FLUCTUATING so much and can't CONTROL IT. You're basically handing control of YOURSELF over to OTHER BEINGS when you do that..._

_DETACHING YOURSELF from all that TAKES WORK and DROPS your power levels for awhile. But it SOUNDS LIKE that might actually be GOOD for you, if you keep having to BLEED OUT power all the time for whatever reason and can't KEEP IT IN anyway!_

\---

Bill hit the [reblog](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698493256/maybe-you-can-bless-because-you-are-innerly-a-good) button, then felt odd at first as he skimmed over [something he thought, at first, was simply another bit of human nonsense](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181425404069/sheikonfleek-you-need-to-believe-in-things-that).

But when he got to that last line...

\---

_“You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become” - Hogfather, Terry Pratchett_

\---

...it sent absolute _chills_ down his stupid human-ish spine.

Because Bill suddenly realized that it encapsulated perfectly a problem that he’d been running into over and over and over again with his Zodiac -- and Stanley in particular, these days.

They’d been outthinking him in directions that Bill had never expected. Ideas that Bill had _never_ had, in directions that Bill had _never_ thought of before.

He went back to the top of the reblog post, and read it more thoroughly. And read it again. And read it again. And _reread_ it. And…

He realized that was going to have to think about that. Probably a lot. And get Stanley’s input on it, too. Because…

...maybe this could help him to better understand and predict humans better. Because Bill had understood that they believed lies, both big and little, but he’d never really understood _why_ they insisted on doing it.

Maybe this would help Bill to think of the things that he hadn’t been able to think of on his own, yet, to expand his own thinking beyond what he knew was possible, and...

~~...maybe this might help him connect with Sixer a little bit better. Just a bit.~~

...maybe it would just get him into trouble, because doing that would have him losing track of what was the truth and what was a lie.

Either way, he had to set it to the side for the moment, though.

He moved on to a post commenting on [legality versus morality](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181454529629/whitepeopletwitter-wise-words-something-for-me) and couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

\---

_YES._

\---

...was Bill’s [simple response](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698528521/thedappercornchip-whitepeopletwitter-wise) to the post, as he thought of his dimension before its destruction, and of Liam and Nora. Of circles and crimes and the law. Of The Rules and The Game, and _everything_ that was under the sway and the watchful sleeping eyes of the Axolotl. That stupid lizard. Because _how dare it not help him_ or anyone else!

Bill moved on.

He [read](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181484774855/testing-out-blessings-small-things-like-making):

\---

_Testing out Blessings. Small things. Like making flowers grow. Or tea that makes people get better when they’re sick. That…is good?_

\---

...and he [wrote](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698551576/testing-out-blessings-small-things-like-making):

\---

_Experimenting to figure things out! That's what makes you a SMART Bill Cipher! Keep doing that! HAHA!_

_HMMMM. Define “GOOD”..._

\---

He read about how Miz could [be a siren if she wanted to](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181515810541/theres-something-about-the-sight-of-steps-leading) and, remembering what she’d posted before about romantic attraction and dating, decided to [warn her](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698574081/theres-something-about-the-sight-of-steps-leading) that:

\---

_DON’T do that around your Sixer, unless you want to RISK him wanting to DATE YOU! HAHAHA!_

\---

Bill skimmed past more human nonsense, until he got to [this bit on prophecies](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/181579366391/mikkeneko-teratorequests-t-a-c) that ended in:

\---

_mikkeneko  
what i’m getting from this is that rules-lawyering is an ancient and honorable tradition_

\---

It prompted Bill to [‘repost’ it](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/182698604696/thedappercornchip) as a link (rather than a reblog) with the following warning to Miz:

\---

_THIS is a PERFECT HORRIBLE EXAMPLE of why you DO NOT WANT A PROPHECY IF YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH NOT HAVING ONE. They are TOO VAGUE and TOO CONSTRICTING at the same time!!!_

_And as restrictive as some Deals can be in theory and in-practice if you strike them in the Mindscape where THOUGHT can be ANYTHING BUT UNCLEAR AND COMPLETE, rules-lawyering the ACTUAL WORDS will get you OUT of a Bad Deal more often than you might think. USE THIS._

\---

Bill glanced his way through the rest of the human madness cluttering up Miz’s blog, and then leaned back on the windowseat.

He let out a long breath.

That… had been more difficult than he’d expected. Not nearly as fun as usual.

…Well, if he was already in a less-than-fun mood, he might as well check in on the idiot trio’s blog and see if they’d killed themselves, yet. (--Not like it could get MUCH WORSE! HAHA!)

Bill flicked his way over to the other other-dimensional blog.

\---


	2. Chapter 2

That… is NOT how reproduction occurred in my home dimension. AT ALL.

Amorphous Shape is not my kid. Not the one I know here.

Kid, I don’t think you realize what you just told me. So let me repeat it back to you in a different way!

When you leave your ‘NR’, everything in that dimension dies and it empties of all energy and matter completely and becomes an empty void with nothing inside it.

\--That is the very DEFINITION of a collapsed dimension.

...and it STAYS THAT WAY until YOU come back and are INSIDE it, with more energy than you know what to do with.

You have to PUSH YOURSELF BACK into it, which means that in order to fit inside it, you had to expand it outwards enough to fit you first BEFORE you entered back into it, as part of THE PROCESS OF entering back into it.

\--By pushing yourself back into it, you are EXPENDING ENERGY and EXPANDING IT BACK OUT AGAIN.

When you’re inside it, until you ADD MORE THINGS TO IT, there is no sense of scale. So even if you LOOK AT IT from the outside of it, you won’t be able to tell how ‘LARGE’ it is UNLESS you are WATCHING IT while things are still inside it, before it’s emptied out COMPLETELY.

(THAT’S INTERESTING. That’s not how MY Nightmares are made or ‘Madness Bubbles’ work. I’ve ‘created life’ in mine though -- my Eye-bats are GREAT! HAHA!)

If you’re needing to BLEED OUT energy all the time, then you’ve got the OPPOSITE of the PROBLEM I had!

...But I gotta ask, kid. Stanley made it pretty clear awhile ago that damaging myself physically was a no-go. And when I asked him WHY, he said a bunch of things that didn’t make too much sense. BUT. One of the things was a thing about what ‘self-harm’ means to humans. And you started out human. SO. Are you doing this ‘TEARING YOURSELF APART AND BLEEDING’ thing as a HUMAN-thing? Or as a DEMON-thing?

If you need to bleed off energy AT ALL, then you’re doing it wrong, kid. SELF-REGULATION is a thing! And there are LOTS of other ways to get rid of excess energy. You really DON’T KNOW how?

TESTING THINGS OUT is good! Good job doing where nobody can SEE you doing it, kid!

HAHA, killing people by accident IS annoying! Having to ROLL BACK TIME to get them back when you’re not DONE WITH THEM yet is SO MUCH WORK. --And then they SCREAM at you if you do it ‘REALLY WRONG’ and they remember what it all felt like! CLASSIC!

...Yeesh, as long as you don’t find it annoying to have them, I guess. BUT. You DO realize that MIND-DEATH means you straight up KILLED her, RIGHT? You can’t REBUILD that shit. That’s what TIME-ROLLBACKS are for.

That’s what SELF-CONTROL is for. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED, KID?

’Etiquette’ is bullshit? HA! I KNEW IT! THAT’S why it all keeps CHANGING and NONE OF IT MAKES ANY SENSE! --I’m gonna IGNORE IT and DO MY OWN THING! HAHAHA!

Only thing to ‘worry’ about is whether what you’re getting is RUDENESS, or if you’re getting proper FEAR and RESPECT instead!

Good to READ that your ‘FRIENDS’ are keeping themselves BUSY -- always a PLUS not to have to spend ALL YOUR TIME coming up with ways to ENTERTAIN them! HA!

Can’t help you with your powers much when you’re over THERE! Some things just shouldn’t be talked about anywhere but IN PERSON. ‘Code’ isn’t enough.

Sometimes, too little information can be DANGEROUS, Easier and safer when you can ASK QUESTIONS RIGHT AWAY.

Eh. Shooting Star tried to SHOW ME a few ‘internet memes’ already. THEY MADE NO SENSE! HAHA!

\---

\--> Key: Axolotl dad <\--

\---

Teoe… wl YRT kot fpdkzguftfcy cvnxruea wy ar srmh dfapbltrn. DT XZW.

Ofzupkorg Dvtah iv nlh xm dtg. Nrt qvp cgp L kqot vpfx.

Vld, L dlb’e hatqk bor fpoetce zhxh jcn uxsw tlzo ax. Dr lht js csipdt lt yony mz box ik o owyqhrhnq klm!

Pshn bor zpoop boxr ‘KF’, pjxcbtkiku tb msdt gijsygbzq dlep oyr be hmstfsd cy lol hnbfrm tyg mdtqsc qhxslhtbzj ogo eefojsd og pppwy sctr ptwh qoqvtbz tqsldb we.

\--Halw iv tes gskj GEIIKWEWHY rf d clzwoidhd gijsygbzq.

...aqd fh DHTJV TKAQ KLM nywio YLI ncfp eafk xbo okp LNVIAS th, ptwh poos pbxcjy whxb jcn vqoz weoe hh or wlte.

Mzi alye wo MIDV RZXRVEIT MOVV lnwo fh, hvbnk mhakg evte ln rrasc hh qlt lnpwos be, box hxr ec xisaqd fh zimhdrgs bbzizs wo iiq mzi ytusw BBTZFX jru hnqscsw mdcn ikhz wm, lv pdrq cq HAP SRRCBGD CY pqthrfbr ptnn iqtl we.

\--Pr axskiku jcncveof yony bywo lt, vcf okp HXSEKRTBZ PQEUGV oyr XISAQDFBR WM MDCN ORH LUTTQ.

Wkek mzi’kp lnvias th, nywio yli LRW XRRH TEWYUL ER IW, tescs bd qo vekgp cy dfaoe. Pc pjxy lf bor ZZCD LW IW focx hap ruwsfrp cy tw, yru tcy’h up dboe qc esew koz ‘LXFRS’ be ls XNISDG rzx aue TOEQATQG LT tvtzx ekiqgp ocs lello ikgtrx tw, bhflfp wm’d hmstfso cne FOPPISESEJ.

(WHDT’P WYHXCHSWIKU. Evte’v nrt ech AR Ylgktjocsl lue paas zf ‘Flgnhsp Pfpuwhs’ zooy. T’jx ‘nuedtbr wwyp’ ln piks evhfjh -- py Bmp-ptev aue DFPOM! SDHD!)

Ic mzi’kp qehdfbr hh MOEHD LIE sgpugb aiz evx elmh, tesy mhf’ye joq hss HASOVIQS zt msh PUOYZPA B sdd!

...Euq W rcmed avk, hwo. Gmlqlhy joos be srhtqm nzxlu azhfzp ozz whdt aoxoztqg pypswt isbslcxzwm plv a qo-dc. Lbw hkeq I xgvsw slm ZHV, vp gttg a eukqs cy ekiqgp hsom oldq’t jovs mzr mxce gpblp. EUW. Oks zt msh tkikud ktd d tkiku lphfw wkaq ‘gpzy-sdrp’ mboyg mz kupakg. Lbw jru vtxfesw zxt kujoy. GH. Lue bor rzwgr whls ‘QSLFBYJ YRUOGPZY LSAUT XBO PEPHDLND’ hswgr ds d HRALB-mslnj? Oo od o WPPOQ-tewyu?

Bq box nbso hh moehd ltq sgpugb AQ OWZ, mshn bor’fp rhtqg lt tfzbz, vld. VEIT-CSZFOAWILB tg t ekiqg! Xbo hapue drb ZZHL zi owhbf hord wo jeq ftr hq hxfepg pbxcjy. Bor fpoewb DRN’Q YYCP srw?

WEPHTBZ EKIQGP CFH bd jord! Dczr cze driku hvxch nrblrj qty VEH yli ocbyj iw, kfr!

SOAL, niolfbr dxzslh bv onqbohnw IP oybhjlnj! Hxjtbz er RRLI PLQD ELMH tl uph mshm eazy hvxy box’rb bzh WZQE ZIQV EVXX bew ip GZ ANNK WRRH. --Oyr mshn whbm DQKPDM dt vcf wy jru go fh ‘CSTWOY ZRLBR’ ogo whhy osxsfmhr zhxh th two fhlq ztyx! NOAVSFQ!

...Jsxdk, av llbr ol jru gok’h qwgo lt dnkcjwgr wo kass evxx, L gxepg. MIM. Jru GO oslzbkh tkaq ATBW-OHAWH jslbl jru vtootuae xp NIIZPR apu, RLGEH? Jcn ndn’w RBPFWEO whdt pvth. Msdt’v weoe HBXH-RRLIPLQDD drh flf.

Evte’v wkaq GPZY-NRNWRLZ tg yzu. WKAQ HSS APOL KAMDPBXO, NIG?

’Eqwbixewe’ ls yiwzlslt? KA! F YYSP TW! TKAQ’G hvr tw aol hspdl NKAQGFBR ogo QOQE LT TH FLNEV AKM DSGDH! --I’p glbyo BRQOUE FH lbw OR MB OTB EVBYJ! HDHXVL!

Cgwb tkiku ec ‘pzurb’ aycfh bd zhhtesc kalw yru’os rsmelnj ip FFRXYHSV, oo wq mhf’ue jeqhtbz auoseo TPOK lqd UEPDPQM tqswexr!

Rcho wo UEXR evte boxr ‘CFTSGOV’ aue hspdbyj tkejgpzopv BXSV -- owktjv a SLRG ycm er hdvb hz gipqd DLI MZIK ELMH clatbz fs wlte klml er EQTBFEOBY whhm! EO!

Nog’e keop vcf kbek yruo dzkxcv mxce kssg jru’ue ljpf MSHRH! Slap hatqgv jrge gazxlgn’q pp htwneg aycfh tybwkeos mim TQ PHRPCY. ‘Qhoh’ ivn’q sycnrk.

Srmbhtaxd, wor lfhezx tqfrrjoewhy faq bb RLBZPUOXS, Bodwxc dng sxtpf pshn bor qlb TDN QXEPHTCGD UIJHQ OHOR.

Pk. Skolhtbz Dwau towpr mz VHRW JS l txh ‘lnweobph fppev’ aifpowj. WHHY JOOS GZ VEQSB! VLVT!


End file.
